A rambunctious dog’s life

5 10 2007

Last night I finished reading a great book about an ‘energetic’ dog and its journalist owner: Marley and Me.

It had me in tears of grief at the end—not because of any cataclysmic event in the story, but because of the memories it evoked. I read somewhere recently that we are never really given time or permission to grieve for a beloved pet; there’s always that “Oh, you can get always a new dog/cat/whatever.” But the grief is real, and it lasts for a long time.

In this case I was grieving for my childhood boxer—Cassie—who I grew up with and who had to be put down the afternoon of my Year 12 Ball (Senior Prom for the Americans). I sure didn’t enjoy that night, but I held in my grief as it wouldn’t have been cool to be in tears the whole night.

And I was grieving for Anouschka, my beloved cat for some 17 years, who I held in my arms when she was put to sleep in 1995.

The grief never goes. You think it has, then you read a book like this, and it comes welling back up.

Update (19 February 2008): I just read that this great book is being made into a movie, starring Owen Wilson.


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Categories : Life stuff

Aeron chairs have arrived

5 10 2007

My Aeron chairs arrived yesterday! Woohoo! So far, they are GREAT. I spent a few hours editing a PhD thesis last night after a full day’s work, and doing it like I usually wouldn’t—but only because the chair allowed me to.

I ramped up the font size in the Word doc to some 250%, sat back in the chair, and was still close enough to the keyboard and mouse to make the punctuation and spelling changes I needed to make on this first pass. One of the features of the chair is the ability to adjust each arm’s height, so I had my left arm resting nicely at the height of the desk/keyboard and the right arm adjusted slightly higher to account for the mouse.

The body of the chair is also really comfortable too, but not like ‘fall asleep on the sofa’ comfortable—a good working comfort. The seat base and back are made of some high tech flexible material which adapts to your body and allows it to ‘breathe’. And there’s great lumbar support.

Sweet!


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Categories : Business/Work, Technical writing